SUNDAY NATION April 27, 2014 KILLING FIELDS | Echoes of Rwanda massacres sound Alarm as South Sudan and C. Africa crises morph into virtual genocides Fuelled by clan, religious, ethnic and political loyalties, the violence is taking on a life of its own BY CIUGU MWAGIRU ciugumwagiru@yahoo.co.uk world during the final decade of the last century, Africa last week showed frightening signs of again becoming the theatre for the first genocides of the current one. Already in South Sudan there is J a major humanitarian catastrophe sparked by the genocidal violence that has for the past few weeks been unfolding in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. In those regions, a million-plus people have been affected by more than three years of war, according to the United Nations. In the meantime, recent media reports indicate that South Sudan’s ill-fated Bentiu town, the most recent massacre zone, exemplifies the horrors of the fighting that broke out shortly before South Sudan’s split from Sudan in 2011. 2011 The year when South Sudan became Africa’s newest nation after splitting from Sudan Sparked when former rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) took up arms again, the violence has been virtually relentless ever since. Fuelled by clan, religious, ethnic and political loyalties, the violence in South Sudan was last week taking an eerie turn as it rapidly morphed into a virtual genocide in which defenceless civilians were targeted. On top of the agenda, of course, were the struggles for power and all its trimmings. Inevitably, the unfolding atrocities have become the stuff of international headlines, with accompanying gory images that have become regular fare for flabbergasted audiences around the world. ust weeks after Rwanda and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the genocide that shocked the Africa News 41 Continent told to fight illicit flow of money BY JOHN NGIRACHU in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com African governments have been urged to work together to stem the illicit flow of money in and out of countries, contributing to drug trafficking, terrorism as well as depriving them of profits from their natural resources. Carlos Lopes, executive sec- retary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, up to $50 billion has been transacted in illicit money transfers from the year 2000. Another study by the Institute for Peace and Security Studies says annual losses from “illicit financial flows range as high as $100 billion and in some cases exceed 10 per cent of individual countries’ Gross Domestic Product”. Illicit financial flows are also FILE | AFP Members of the White Army, a South Sudanese anti-government militia, at a rally in Nasir on April 14, 2014. Conflict in South Sudan has triggered a serious risk of famine that will kill up to 50,000 children within months, Delivered to their sitting rooms by frenetic international media, the gut-wrenching images of the plight of civilian populations are a grim reminder of just how elusive peace and stability have become in the oil-rich but still dirt-poor country. Ironically, the seemingly rudder- less nation’s long-suffering civilian population has continued to bear the brunt of the ceaseless political feuding and sectarian violence that have become the hallmark of South Sudan politics. Already reportedly starving and besieged by all sorts of maladies, the non-combatants’ woes epitomise a tragedy of monumental proportions. Reduced to desperate voices crying in the wilderness, ordinary citizens caught up in the senseless violence have continued to be sitting ducks for crazed fighters apparently sworn to lay waste a nation that has hardly enjoyed stability since it gained independence from its northern neighbour just about three years ago. In the circumstances, the only beneficiaries of the unfolding political quagmire are international arms dealers and cold-blooded politicians driven by unbridled ambition and insatiable greed for power. Also in the bandwagon are serial opportunists, including very well remunerated human rights operatives and their international aid cousins who are equally well accustomed to fishing in troubled waters. In the meantime, there has been a corresponding rise in the level of rhetoric from the United Nations and African Union, perhaps the world’s most active bureaucracies and talk shops. Not heard the last Clearly, the world had not heard the last from those cantankerous institutions, and the volumes of resolutions, statements, memoranda, calls, ultimatums, demands, condemnations and similar by-products are guaranteed to rise. So, too, are the ceaseless rantings of goodwill ambassadors and international celebrities safely ensconced in their comfort zones as they tell TV cameras about their endless quests for global peace. Predictably, dust-covered piles of documents relating to African crises may be the only products of some of the world’s most resourceconsuming bureaucracies, whose cocktail routines in five-star hotels are also legendary. Further, threats of new sanctions are also being made, never mind that such sanctions would most likely aggravate the suffering of already desperate civilians. In the meantime, the South Sudan crisis has already overflowed the country’s borders and is spreading across a wide swath of African hotspots. That swath is home to western Sudan’s Darfur region, where an 11-year-old insurgency has been fuelled by allegations by non-Arab groups of neglect and discrimination by Khartoum. Other actors in the fast expanding African theatre of fratricidal violence are such fragile states as the neighbouring DR Congo and extremely volatile Central African Republic. Already dismissed by many as a lost cause, the latter has in recent times shown signs of a looming genocide. For instance, there were reports early last week that the UN was evacuating sizeable numbers of Muslims from Banguito “save their lives” from machete-wielding militiamen. Ultimately, with sectarian violence in the former French colony having already claimed thousands in the past year, it is clear that CAR, like South Sudan, could well turn out to be the host of a Rwanda-style genocide. Zimbabwe splinter group ‘suspends’ Tsvangirai from party HARARE, Saturday Infighting in Zimbabwe’s main opposition intensified Saturday, with a splinter group announcing it has suspended leader Morgan Tsvangirai (right) for violence and violating the party’s constitution. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction said it suspended former Prime Minister Tsvangirai, his deputy Thokozani Khupe, chairperson Lovemore Moyo and four other senior party officials. The group, which includes sec- retary-general Tendai Biti, said Tsvangirai had violated the MDC’s constitution by expelling deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma, who had called for his resignation. “This council has suspended Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (as party leader),” Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, acting chairperson of the splinter faction, said after a meeting in the capital Harare. “We will not walk with those who have violence in their veins.” Biti told journalists that Tsvangirai has betrayed the struggle to democratise Zimbabwe, which has been ruled for nearly 34 years by veteran leader Robert Mugabe. “We feel these people have betrayed the struggle,” he said. “We will rebuild from the ashes.” But MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora dismissed claims that Tsvangirai has been suspended. “It is a legal nullity, Tsvangirai remain the legitimate leader of the MDC,” Mwonzora said. “That was not a national council meeting.” The MDC, formed in 1999 by an alliance of trade unions and civic groups, has been seen as the most credible challenger to 90-year-old Mugabe’s grip on power. But it has been riven by tensions since Tsvangirai was beaten at the polls last year. Mwonzora said the MDC’s internal strife had been caused by interference from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and state security agents. Mangoma was expelled after he sug- gested Tsvangirai should step down as leader of the MDC following last year’s election defeat to Mugabe. (AFP) characterised by commercial tax evasion, where multinational corporations pay less than they are supposed to the countries whose natural resources they exploit. These illicit flows also involve money-laundering the proceeds of crime and corruption and theft of government assets. Gangs, terrorists and criminal agents like an environment where they can hide their assets” Carlos Lopes, UN official Mr Lopes used as an example a case where proceeds of piracy are used to pay for miraa imports and to invest in real estate in Kenya. “Gangs, terrorism and criminal agents like an environment where they can hide their criminal assets well,” said Mr Lopes. He cited the illegal ivory trade, which is also most often international, as another example. Mr Lopes said this finances terrorism and drug-trafficking across the continent, evidenced by Al-Shabaab in East Africa, Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. Without a continent-wide re- solve, he said, the African Union resolution to “silence the guns” on the continent by 2020 would not be fulfilled. “Africans can choose to be victimised or victims or offer to change,” said Mr Lopes. He was speaking at the third Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, which started yesterday. Among those attending are South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Sudan President Omar al Bashir and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. Opening the forum, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said African countries need to access information on deposits in foreign banks by corporations that avoid tax in their host African countries.